Favourite Five is back after a December hiatus (because, keDecember! Everything is great!). January has felt slightly too long, and too work-orientated for my liking but nevertheless I managed to collect my first five favorite things for 2015…

1. White Lace Blonde Lettuce Collection Supergas

I can’t claim any originality points on these – one of our favourite bloggers Kiss, Blush and Tell posted a pic of these back in September, resulting in immediate lust on my side. Thankfully, my husband included these as part of my Christmas gift and have worn them basically every weekend since then! Superga has an incredible range of both ladies and gents’ casual footwear, that is both stylish and comfortable, meaning you need not cruise the streets of Paris in your old takkies anymore (if that was the excuse you were using…)

2. CND Vinylux Nail Polish

If you read Ilaria’s answers about me in About Us you would know (or if you know me personally), that I despise unpainted toes. On myself, I struggle having unpainted finger nails, however, lack the ability to paint my own nails. This resulted in back-to-back applications of Shellac or Gelish every two weeks for most of 2014. Not only is the habit a bit expensive but it also left me with damaged nails. Enter, Vinylux – promising 7 day chip-free wear and removed using normal nail polish remover. I am extremely hard wearing on my nails, so to get 5-6 days of wear from the polish is fantastic. I pop down to the salon in my office building, once a week, and am done in 30 minutes – power lunching at its best!

3. The Great Eastern Food Bar

You may have figured out by now that I take my dining-out fairly seriously – I stumbled upon thisarticlesometime last week and I found myself nodding along with almost every single statement.

And then – a number 14 happened to me… Last Saturday, friends suggested we meet at the Great Eastern Food Bar in Melville, which I had not even heard of, despite being around for over a year! Anyhoo, I was expecting a particularly average experience but was most pleasantly surprised about how GREAT it was. Fantastic, actually. The GE Food Bar serves (what I would term) ‘new style’ Asian food; a mix of Korean, Japanese and other Eastern-ish flavours. And besides the excellent, fresh food, the patio has views over Emmarentia and Parkview (making it great for sundowners in the waning months of summer), a relaxed dining atmosphere and a well-selected playlist. If you haven’t yet tried out the GE Food Bar, I would highly recommend doing so – this is easily one of Jo’burg’s most creative, different restaurants.

A while back, Burst Make Up Studios got hold of us to ask if we wanted to test their make-up brushes. We were both a bit hesitant, being new to the blogging business and all, so when the brush arrived I kindly offered to test it on behalf of Spruce. And I was very, very pleasantly surprised by the quality of the brush. Firstly, it easily matches up to the quality of my MAC brushes and the brush we were sent – the Tapered Blending Brush (BL06) – does a fantastic job of contouring cheek bones with bronzer or blusher. This brush has been a very welcomed addition to my collection, and best of all, it seems to shed less brush hairs than any of my other brushes. The range of brushes Burst offers is HUGE and is available online for delivery.

5. iPhone 6+

I had the misfortune of having my iPhone 5 stolen from my handbag on the first weekend of January – less than the ideal start to the year! Thankfully, my upgrade was due and by the next day my (darling) husband and set up my new iPhone – the 6 Plus. The 6+ is the ‘phablet’ (mini-tablet) version of the iPhone 6 and I absolutely love it. Most people seem to comment on the size of it – it is a lot bigger than I was used to but, in this case, size does matter 🙂 The screen size and resolution is incredible – it is really a pleasure for reading emails, browsing and social-media’ing. Already a massive Apple fan (once I read the Jobs’ biography I was converted for life), I am now an Apple fanatic.